West Side Story

Friday 6 August

I had breakfast in the café attached to the hostel and then met up with Lauren, one of the managers, who showed me round the various facilities, including a nice pool and lots of other sports facilities - this gives me a good idea of what's available when I bring the school choir here in April.

Cathedral of St John the Divine

I took the subway up to 110th St to meet Christopher Wells, who will be our accompanist on the tour. Christopher is the organist of Christ Church, Bronxville, which is about half an hour north of Manhattan, where we will be singing alongside his choir. I took the choir from Bilton Grange there in 2004 and the Bickley Park boys there in 2007. It was great to catch up with Christopher and to go with him to St John the Divine Cathedral on the Upper West Side, one of the other venues at which we will be performing. The cathedral is apparently the biggest in the world (St Peter's in Rome is bigger, but that's a basilica!) and should be a very exciting place to perform. We were shown around by Marnie, who also answered any questions we had - very useful. We then wandered around the building - a very beautiful and peaceful place.

We then returned to the subway - Christoper got off at 50th St as he was meeting someone for lunch and continued all the way to South Ferry at the southern tip of Manhattan. I wandered up through the Financial District, past Wall Street, and to Hanover Square which is where the British Garden is. This was built to honour the British victims of 9/11 and contains plants from Britain and features such as City of London bollards and stonework from Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. On the ground there is a kind of narrow meandering pathway containing names of English, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish counties.

I walked up to South Street Seaport and queued up at the half price to ticket booth there. This time I was successful in getting a ticket for West Side Story.

I walked over to St Paul's Chapel, which will be our third venue in April. I have been here many times before but I thought I would take a few photos to show the parents. The chapel is one of the oldest buildings in New York and still contains the pew where George Washington worshipped. In recent years it has been closely linked with 9/11 as it stands opposite the site of the former World Trade Center. I walked over to Grond Zero - this is the first time I have seen evidence of construction here as, understandably, there have been all sorts of arguments as to what should be done with the site. They are now building the new One World Trade Center which will once more be New York's tallest building. The footprints of the original Twin Towers will become huge pools surrounded by waterfalls. I had a look at a new exhibition nearby which gave details of the plans.

The High Line

I took the subway up a few stops to W 14th St and walked over to Gansevoort St which is where the High Line starts. This is a brand new project which is converting a former elevated freight railway into a park. It is brilliant - a walkway above the streets lined with plants and whacky modern art installations, with great views of the City all around. Currently it only stretches from 14th to 20th St but it will eventually go all the way up to 34th St.

I took the subway to W 53rd and walked down to the Rockefeller Center to see whether I could go up to the Top of the Rock observation deck but the next available time didn't give me enough time to be back safely for the theatre.

I had dinner at Ellen's Stardust Diner which has live singers singing songs from the shows, etc. - great fun!

Palace Theater

I wandered around Times Square taking photos before going to the Palace Theater, which is at the north end of Times Square for the performance. I had never seen a professional production of West Side Story and it certainly didn't disappoint. The sets and lights were brilliant but what was central was fantastic singing and dancing - some modern musicals could learn something from that. The work is an absolute masterpiece.

It was thrilling to come out straight into Times Square which was thronging with people out to enjoy themselves on a Friday night.